Now, even though their schedules have become more frantic -- and their responsibilities include m... Board game makers seek new

Now, even though their schedules have become more frantic -- and their responsibilities include more than debating the merits of Superman vs. Batman -- they may be able to find out the answer.

On March 1, GameSnacks, the brainchild of Los Angeles-based Snap TV, is coming out with Pop Culture Trivia -- a DVD game that quizzes players on scandals, celebrities and fashion trends.

DVD games are at the epicenter of a growing trend in which board game developers want interactive technology to bring people together -- combating the Internet, iPods and Playstations, which largely focus on individual entertainment.

"We're social creatures and there's a real hunger to share an experience together," said Richard Fast, chief executive of Toronto-based Zapit Games and co-creator of brain-teaser question game MindTrap, which debuted in 1991. "It's all about how you get people to share a night talking. We're trying to get people together and make it an interactive thing."

"As a society, our attention span is getting shorter and shorter," Fast said. "People don't want to invest an hour and a half in a game waiting for turns. You can wait six to seven minutes for a turn."

Zapit's Game Wave, which was launched in Canada last year and is slated for a full U.S. release in September, is a game console that plugs into a television like a video game and plays traditional board games without the board and dice.

GameSnacks, which debuted earlier this month at the American International Toy Fair in New York, is a DVD-based line designed to give players a "quick bite" of play in less than 20 minutes, said Snap TV Chief Executive Nicholas Wodtke.

"The time required for a traditional board game is an hour. We came up with the concept of a snack. We identify that most people today just don't have discretionary time."

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